15 January 2009

Sestinas

Best mathematical poem ever: S|{e,s,t,i,n,a}|, by Caleb Emmons. This is a sestina that explains what a sestina is, using the language of the symmetric group. (A sestina is a certain highly structured kind of poem. I won't say more. See the Wikipedia article on them if you have trouble with the poem.)

(I actually had a longer post about the mathematics of sestinas written, but the computer ate it. Oh well.)

4 comments:

That is one of the coolest things ever. I learned about sestinas in school, and i was the only one who could figure out the pattern (sad english class...) but a sestina about math now thats just awesome.